Son of The Moon
by YuKiOnA-Ga
Summary: Kenji's having strange dreams of the past, and Kaoru is upset about her son. She sings to him a lullaby, and it remains in Kenshin's mind as he falls asleep and remembers another life with Kaoru. reincarnation i guess, but good!


_**Check out the song!**_

_**I don't own Rurouni Kenshin or the song Hijo De La Luna. **_

Son of the Moon

Kenshin awoke to the sound of soft singing. He sat up, realized his wife was not beside him and sighed. Kenji, his boy of only six, had been having awful nightmares lately, and, with a power she only will say is 'mothers intuition', Kaoru always knows when he is sniffling in his room to quietly for even the ex-Hitokiri to hear. Apparently, the only thing to calm his son was the lilting voice of his wife, gently placing him back into the realm of peaceful dreams.

There was a moment of silence as she ended her song and whispered 'I love you'. Kenshin waited for her to return, hair still braided, her body clad in a white sleeping yukata that would look like moon light when she opened the shoji to let herself in. He smiled at her and she bit her lip, looking forlorn. She hurriedly crawled in beside him and locked her arms around his waist, burying her head into the red headed assassin's chest. Automatically, he cradled her head and kissed the crown before asking softly, so not to rouse the sleeping child,

"What's the matter, koishii?"

"Oh, anata, he's been so scared, it hurts my heart."

He breathed deeply, "I know, love. It is normal for a child to dream, they will stop soon."

She pulled away from his grasp, two little pearls of saltwater in the corner of her ocean blue eyes.

"Oh, Kenshin," She murmured, putting her hands over her mouth to stop a sob of despair. "You don't know what he dreamed of tonight. It broke my heart…"

"What, koishii?" He moved a free piece of hair away from her face.

"He-He," She choked. "He said, 'Mommy was stolen by a man with white hair and glasses with eyes the color of blue glass' and when," She glanced at her husband's tense form. "And…when I asked him why he was letting himself dream of such scary thing, trying to…to make him laugh, he shook his head and he looked at me and said, 'I saw it, mommy, I saw it. He…made a copy of you and shoved a sword through it to make it look like you weren't here anymore and…and daddy…he broke.'

I laughed at him, then, anata…it sounded like a toy, you know. But, he glared at me in that way you do when you get so upset and pulled at my hand. He said 'he broke, mommy. He broke. He needs you, okay? You can't leave him…" She sobbed again, leaning into her husband. "You can't leave me…mommy…'"

"Shh, shh, koishii, my love, it was just…him dreaming…"

But his was as uncertain as he was. How his son knew of Enishi, he had no idea but if this kept on, Kaoru would fall apart, and his koishii came first. He would speak to his son, he would make sure not to upset his mother any more. He remembered Hiko once telling him that children around his age would have little bouts of psychic connection and would know things that they shouldn't or predict things that grown men and women can't, like the weather or if there was someone at the door before they knocked.

The black haired fighter leaned against him, sobbing. She was scared. She was so scared, but not of his son or his behavior, but for him. She loved him more than herself and when Misao had once tried telling the young woman of the reactions of Kenshin to her death, but she refused to hear it, knowing that it would only break her heart from the pain he went through.

"Don't worry koishii. All we be well."

He gently laid his wife on the futon, stretching an arm around her middle, keeping her close as she calmed her shaking breath and drifted into a restless sleep with her husband in tow. His mind drifted to the word of the ancient lullaby…

_Foolish is he who doesn't understand…_

Kaoru stood in the middle of a ring of clapping men and woman, her middle showing from the half shirt and long flowing skirt she wore, covered with sparkling beads that twinkled when she spun. She danced like an expert, her hip, long arms and legs the envy of any woman, for no one could match her grace as her arms gently snaked up and down and her chest swayed like bamboo. Her eyes were closed as she pranced around the fire, singing in a tongue he couldn't speak but didn't understand.

When she was finished, she bowed, opening her eyes to her friends and family, awed by her dance. They were the color of moss, with highlights of summer leaves. But it was Kaoru, no doubt, with her hair the strands of darkness that took over the land when the sun vanished. Although her irises were a different color he knew it was her. She gently escaped her circle, saying something about being tired and took off into the forest, crying. Tears streaked the sides of her face as she ran, biting into the soft skin.

She ran until she was on a cliff of the mountain her caravan had stopped on, that showed the moon directly above her. She slid to the ground and sobbed as loud as she dared, for she knew that there were dangerous animals in the wood that had a craving for virgin gypsy flesh. She held her arms up to the moon and begged, pleaded for someone to end her loneliness. Although she was not alone, she was. She had no one to trust completely, because in the land of gypsies, they would eat you alive when they learned your secrets, unless you were their beloved.

"Please, Lady, bring me a man to call my own," She sobbed into the cold sky, looking at the face of a beautiful goddess. Her hands clutched painfully at the damp strands of green grass at under her palms and little droplets fell onto the earth as an offering.

_A legend tells of a gipsy woman  
Who pleaded with the moon until dawn.  
Weeping she begged  
At the break of dawn  
To marry a gipsy man._

"I will grant you your wish, little one, but my price is dire," The young woman wiped her face with the back of her hand and nodded, no longer caring of what she had to give up in order to stop her pain.

"Yes, my Lady, anything!" She cried.

"You shall give to me your first born and I will give you a man of your own kind to call your own."

"Yes! I shall do it, yes! Please, Lady Moon, let me no longer be alone!"

_"You'll have your man, tawny skin,"  
Said the full moon from the sky.  
"But in return I want the first child  
That you have with him.  
Because she who sacrifices her child  
So that she is not alone,  
Isn't likely to love it very much."_

There was silence and Kaoru threw herself to her feet. She looked around, hoping to see a dark skinned man appearing from the dirt beneath her feet. She looked around, trying to keep herself from crying again. She pounded her legs with her fists and ran into the forest, with only the forsaken moon as her light. She wanted to push it away in a stubborn, child like manner, as if she could run in the dark alone, without the assistance of the mother moon.

_Moon, you want to be mother,  
But you cannot find a love  
Who makes you a woman.  
Tell me, silver moon,  
What you intend to do  
With a child of flesh.  
A-ha-ha, a-ha-ha,  
Son of the moon._

She slipped into the caravan and into bed, trying to keep her pain filled cries muffled. She didn't sleep. Like many nights, she stared up at the darkness and wondered what she had done to deserve this. All of the people in her traveling group had found their mate, and love with them. Why was she alone? Why was she, one of the most beautiful women among them, forsaken? Was it her temper? Or, maybe, her strange colored eyes that some said suggested fey blood mixed with their own? She had no parents, so maybe it was the fact that there was really no permission to gain to court her, so some just stayed away.

Two day later, the caravan stopped again Kaoru was sent to get water from a nearby stream. She took her time, still extremely upset that there was no man. She bent down and filled half of the empty canteens before heading back to drop them off before going to fill the others. The second time she came to the small line of flowing water, she noticed a man. He was covered from his toes to his black hair with dirt and grime, but he appeared dead with one hand being tugged by the waters fingers. Kaoru gasped and hopped over the little bit of distance between them and shook his shoulder.

He was small, she thought. His hair was dark and tied at the base of his neck with a small band of leather that was worn and light. He groaned and she let out a sigh of relief, the deal she had made with the moon the farthest thing from her mind. She spoke to him softly, asking if he was alright. He groaned again and she pulled him to lie on his back. He opened his eyes and she gasped, pulling away. They were the color swaying wheat in the field. He stared back, just as entranced as she.

She stroked his mud covered cheek and said, teasingly,

"You are very dirty."

He chuckled, his throat dry and hoarse, but he didn't care. He would laugh until his throat bled to make this woman smile at him like the way she was. He grasped her hand and let her pull him to sitting position.

"Hold," She held her hand out in a stopping motion. "I will get one of the canteens from across the stream."

His eyebrows furrowed,

"My friend, it is a far jump and…"

He never finished, the gypsy woman hopping the distance in one leap of her long legs, giving him quite the view. He said nothing as she bounded to her water bottles, filled it, before jumping again and giving it to him.

"Drink," She commanded in a voice like silk, "We have a far distance to reach the caravan."

His eyes went hard.

"They will not accept an outcast."

She smiled and he melted, "They will if he is with me."

Her wording was strange, it suggested more than walking, but he grinned. Her heart mumbled in her chest of stories of this. Love that was immediate the moment that they met. She flushed, watching a small drop of water that fell from the canteen, dribbled down his chin and onto his chest. This was him. Her promised love. The one that would banish her hurt and her loneliness.

It was Kenshin. His eyes were bottled sunlight, and his hair shone red when the light hit it right. That was Kaoru, and there was a deep knowing in both sides that they were meant to be.

The caravan opened him with open arms, so happy to see that their best dancer finally had a man that she deserved. They basked in each other's love, falling deeper and deeper in one another. They married only a few months after he joined them, and the night was spent under the same moon she had begged to. His lips and his tongue found every hidden hurt and fear and made them vanish into the darkness that surrounded them. He was gentle and rough, protective and freeing, he was the lock and the key at the same time.

A few months after marriage, her belly began to swell with a promise. Her debt would have to be paid, although she had forgotten. He couldn't have been a happier man. He kept her well fed, because even this Kaoru could not seem to stand very well cooking. She grew with each month, happier and happier.

Soon they will have their first child and she will finally be complete.

_From a cinnamon-skinned father  
A son was born,  
White as the back of an ermine,  
With grey eyes instead of olive -  
Moon's albino child.  
"Damn his appearance!  
This is not a gipsy man's son  
And I will not put up with that."_

When the time came, and wetness covered her legs and her low bed in the wagon, she commanded them all to stop and for the women to hurry. Kenshin had wanted to be inside, but he was pulled away by the men. They kept him busy, taking him away from the painful cries coming from inside the traveling house. He was tense, awaiting his faithful, beloved wife, and his first born.

After god knows how many hours, a woman came out, with her hands wrapped around a small bundle. He cradled it, gently pulling back to cloth to reveal his sons face. He almost dropped him. It was as white as the lily, not a gypsy son at all! He crashed through the door of the caravan, clutching his knife in his hands. The woman ran to their husband, not uttering a word.

_Believing to be dishonoured,  
The gipsy went to his wife,  
A knife in his hand.  
"Whose son is this?  
You've certainly fooled me!"  
And he wounded her mortally._

"Who's son have did you bear? It surely wasn't mine!" He screamed.

Her face was pale, covered in sweat and blood seeping into the blankets around her form. She wheezed, already dying from the loss. She reached a hand out to him, her love. He growled and she cried out.

"He was not yours, I admit," She gasped out.

"You lying wench! I shall take your life and let the child rot like the bastard he is!"

"He is not mine nor yours," She sagged into the darkness surrounding her.

"W-what?" His fury faltered.

"I begged for you. For a love that would accept me and all my faults. That would take my fears and crush them," She moaned in pain. "For a love that would make time itself halt in awe."

She shook her head, clumps of dark hair plastered to her forehead with sweat.

"The moon agreed. She would give me that one man…but, in return, I must give up my first born to her. There was no other way to have you. I," a few tears leaked from her eyes. "I was selfish…but I couldn't stand the bone crushing loneliness any longer."

She gave him a shaky smile, "Then I found you. I forgot. I forgot my pain…my loneliness, my fears…I forgot them…as well as the price for you."

She took a shaky breath. "And now, I am dying. The blood will not stop and you are obviously hurt by me. My love, I'm sorry," She opened watery eyes, so dark with pain and sadness, they appeared black.

"Please," she whispered, "tell me you forgive me."

When could he ever deny her? "Of course."

She closed her eyes, smiling. "I love you."

He bent beside her and took her hand, cold and clammy.

"Don't leave me, not yet. We could have another son, have him for ourselves. Let the moon take her bastard…"

"I cannot stay, beloved; I must leave and join the sea of souls that cloud the moon in her brilliance."

Even dying she was beautiful.

"I…I will join you then. The moon gave you to me, but…you gave yourself to me. I cannot stand, I cannot breath, cannot eat without you here beside me, my love."

She opened her eyes, sharp like two knives, "You must live. You cannot die because I am gone."

Tears squeezed from his sun weary eyes.

"Please, do not do this to me…do not take her away from me, wretched moon. Let her remain here, with me."

She squeezed his fingers.

"It is my time."

"No," He gasped, clutching her like a child would his mother. "No."

"Yes, my dear," she stroked his cheek. "There is always an end to an adventure. Life is one great adventure and death is the only end…"

There was a moment of silence and she looked at him with heavy lids, blood pulsing from underneath the covers. He sobbed, brushing his lips against hers.

"I let you go," He murmured. "Take her…but take care of her."

She smiled against his lips, her grip faltering, her heart slowly stopping as she fell gently into the mouth of death. He cried, picking up her body and carrying it out. The men immediately went and grabbed digging tools, for life was hard for a gypsy and some could not take it. They followed the crying man through a dense path, into a field full of flowers where he lay her lifeless body. He gazed at her small smile and looked away. The men patted him on the shoulders, but said nothing at they dug a hole big enough for her curled up body to rest in.

Kenshin picked up the woman and gently placed her in the damp earth. The men covered her and he let his tears fuel the soil with his grief, so that a flower just for his love would grow. When darkness washed over the man and small pile of dirt, he looked up. He searched for a star he didn't know, surrounded by others so that she wouldn't be alone. He found it.

_Then he went to the woodlands  
With the child in his arms  
And left it behind there._

It had distanced itself from the other stars. It was in a space of its own, sparkling like it was speaking to it. He smiled softly, and whispered a prayer of love and protection in the afterlife before following the small fire light the caravan's passengers had created. He picked up his son, and left again, all of his belongings on his back. He could not take what was the moons, and he followed a path up a steep mountain and bowed before the great ball of glowing light and gently placed the bundle on the ground.

He left, crying. The demon sphere had taken all that he loved, and he had no say in it. But, he promised, he would keep to his word and not kill himself simply to join his dearest.

_And the nights the moon is full  
It is because the child  
Is in a good mood.  
And if the child cries,  
The moon wanes  
To make it a cradle.  
And if the child cries,  
The moon wanes  
To make it a cradle._

Kenshin woke with a start, his hand grabbing his reversed-blade sword by his side and listening to the sound of feet. He glanced at the shoji that slowly slid open, a little grunt given with the effort. His son looked at him with his own eyes.

"Did you have another nightmare, little one?" the older man whispered, holding on to the tail of his dream.

"No," he said after a moment. "But…you did, right, Daddy?"

He looked at his son, shocked before he nodded.

"Yes…"

"Did Mommy have green eyes and danced by a fire?"

"Yes…"

"I had that dream, too, before. On the first night that she sang her favorite song to me," He walked over to his father. He leaned down to whisper to him, like it was a huge secret. "It's called, 'Son of the Moon' in our language, but Mommy sings it in another one."

"Really?" Kenshin stared at his son in awe. Hiko had mentioned nothing like this.

"Buddha gives us second chances, right, Daddy?"

He nodded, closing his mouth.

Kenji smiled, "Then I'm glad this one turned out right, because I don't want to be the son of the moon. I love you and Mommy." His face twisted, "Even if the moon waned to cradle me, I wouldn't love her like I do you guys…"

Kenshin felt his heart clench. He hugged his son to his chest, effortlessly picking him up and taking him back to his room where he kissed him on the forehead and tucked him in. The child smiled sleepily and traced his father's cheek, his fingers running over the indentions left by painful memories.

"Don't worry, Daddy," He murmured from his pillow. "Mommy and I will always be with you."

There was another moment of tense silence.

"Hai, little one. I know…"

Kenshin stood and went to his and Kaoru's room before climbing in and wrapping his arm around her again, pressing his entire front to her back.

"Was that Kenji-chan?" She mumbled.

"Yes, koishii, but all is well. Just like I said."

"…yatta…"

He chuckled and buried his nose in her hair, unable to shake the dream or his son's words. He smiled.

'_Indeed,_' he thought, kissing the head of his wife. _'They will not leave me.'_

_**Okay, not my best, but I thought it was a cool idea! REVIEW! PLEASE! YOU MAY GET COOKIES!**_


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